Streetsblog New York City

Photo: Christa Orth

We’re still filling in the details on this one, but here’s a look at the Gold + Williams furniture storefront on Lafayette and Kenmare in SoHo this afternoon. It looks like the driver kept going straight on westbound Kenmare, even though the street ends.

This block is very close to Streetsblog HQ and gets a lot of foot traffic during lunch hour. We’re checking in with NYPD and FDNY to see if anyone got hurt. Initial accounts reported by Gothamist suggest that, incredibly, no one was injured.

Wall Street Journal reporter Ted Mann adds this piece of background:

A car just drove into a storefront at 210 Lafayette St., across from Petrosino Square, where neighbors warned of danger from… bike-share.

— Ted Mann (@TMannWSJ) April 25, 2013

De-motorization of NYC streets can’t happen fast enough.

Photo: Doug Gordon

Brooklyn Spoke’s Doug Gordon tweeted this photo Wednesday morning. This crash happened at the intersection of Prince and Crosby in Soho, which gets a ton of foot traffic and sees some of the highest bike counts in the city. It’s only random chance that someone didn’t get hit.

One change that would help regulate drivers’ speeds on Prince Street would be to re-time traffic signals to synch up with a more bike- and pedestrian-friendly 10-15 mph. In December, Manhattan Community Board 2 passed a resolution asking DOT to study “Green Wave” signal timing on Prince.

With two unanimous 9-0 votes, Manhattan Community Board 2′s transportation committee took one step forward and one step back for livable streets last night, voting for safety fixes at a problematic intersection while punting on a proposal for bike corrals after local NIMBY extraordinaire Sean Sweeney showed up to squash it.

Just another day at the intersection of Carmine Street, Clarkson Street, Varick Street and Seventh Avenue South. Photo: Doug Gordon

A request for traffic calming and pedestrian safety fixes at the intersection of Clarkson Street, Carmine Street, Varick Street and Seventh Avenue South moved ahead after the committee agreed to drop further consideration of converting one block of Carmine Street to one-way operation. The intersection, which floods with traffic bound for the Holland Tunnel, would receive curb extensions on the northeast and northwest corners to reduce the crossing distance and daylighting treatments on the southwest corner through removal of on-street parking. The proposal was put forth by Brooklyn Spoke blogger Doug Gordon, who works nearby, and will move to the full board on January 24 before advancing to DOT and NYPD for agency consideration.

In a surprise move, the committee sent plans for three on-street bike corrals back to DOT for further study. Bike corrals were presented for three locations, each to be maintained by an adjacent business that had requested the bike parking: Spring Street Natural on the southwest corner of Spring and Lafayette Streets, Little Cupcake Bakeshop on the southeast corner of Prince and Mott Streets, and Organic Avenue at the corner of Sullivan and Houston Streets.

Sean Sweeney, winner of Streetsblog’s 2008 NIMBY of the Year award, pounced on these bike corral installations. “Why is SoHo DOT’s petri dish?” he asked. “Experiment somewhere else!”

Although DOT’s Inbar Kishoni pointed out that corrals are being installed in several other neighborhoods, and that the committee had already voted in support of a bike corral at Cafe Habana at Prince and Elizabeth Streets, Sweeney’s opposition scared away enough members from supporting the corrals. In the end, Committee Chair Shirley Secunda put forward a resolution asking DOT for more planning, education, and outreach before installing bike corrals.

So, thanks to Sweeney, instead of safer sightlines at intersections and on-street bike parking that would help relieve the spatial crunch on crowded sidewalks, SoHo and these local businesses will be getting nothing, at least for the time being. Chalk up another win for Sweeney’s SoHo Alliance.

Read more…

Prince Street in Soho is a candidate to receive the city’s first “green wave” — traffic signals timed to align with cyclists’ travel speeds — after a vote of support from the Manhattan Community Board 2 transportation committee.

On Valencia Street in San Francisco, a "green wave" was so popular it was made permanent in 2011. Photo: Bryan Goebel

Prince Street sees some of the highest bike mode-share of any NYC street, but the signal timing doesn’t synch up with comfortable cycling speeds, leading to red light-running. A green wave would re-time the progression of traffic signals so that drivers and cyclists can travel smoothly at a pedestrian-friendly 10 to 15 mph. In San Francisco, the treatment has proven popular on Valencia Street, a major bike route.

Members of CB 2′s transportation committee were very supportive when proponent Ian Dutton showed them a presentation about the concept [PDF], but they also said that the street is already cluttered and they didn’t want too much additional signage. (In an effort to keep drivers from rapidly accelerating only to stop at the next block, signs are usually posted to inform them of the slower timing.)

Although a green wave on Prince may not retime stop lights at high-volume cross streets like Broadway and Lafayette Street, it would still improve on the current stop-and-start timing for cyclists while calming car traffic.

A green wave has been discussed since bike lanes were first proposed for Prince and Bleecker Streets in 2007, but DOT and the community board have so far taken little action to make it a reality. Dutton’s presentation to CB 2 does not include Bleecker, though he noted that because it’s an important route for cyclists traveling south and east from Ninth Avenue, Bleecker might also be a good candidate for signal retimings.

On December 6, CB 2′s transportation committee approved a resolution supporting the green wave, 10-0, with one absence. Supporters are cautiously optimistic.

“It’s hard to tell what will happen when it comes before the full board at its next meeting,” committee chair Shirley Secunda told Streetsblog in an email. The full board will take up the matter on December 20.

The transportation committee of Manhattan Community Board 2 is looking for input on how to improve safety at Sixth Avenue and Houston Street, the intersection where Jessica Dworkin was killed by a truck driver two weeks ago.

“Everything’s open,” says committee chair Shirley Secunda, “from street geometry to police enforcement and investigation to current regulations as well as need for new regulations.”

Dworkin was riding a foot-propelled scooter west on Houston Street around 9 a.m. on August 27 when she was caught by the rear wheels of a flatbed semi as the driver turned right from Houston onto Sixth. The trucker was cited for careless driving.

“There has been a tremendous outpouring of grief from the community, in no small part because we have all had our own near-misses at that crossing,” says Ian Dutton, a former CB 2 member who was a neighbor of Dworkin’s. “I have adult, fully-abled friends who refuse to cross on that specific crosswalk because of aggressive, speeding drivers.”

Dworkin was the second person to die at Sixth and Houston in recent memory. Five years ago this month, 28-year-old Hope Miller was killed by a truck driver as she crossed Houston on her way to an acting class.

The committee may also address bridge tolls and truck size regulations, Secunda said. Since he was traveling east to west, there is speculation that the driver may have cut through the city to avoid the westbound toll on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. The truck that killed Dworkin appeared to exceed 55 feet, the maximum length allowed on surface streets without a permit, and the cab was missing required front-mounted crossover mirrors.

Committee recommendations would be presented as resolutions to the full board, and if approved would be directed to city agencies and electeds.

“I’m also going to ask that the board take a firm stand on the NYPD policy of immediately declaring ‘no criminality’ when the details are far from clear,” says Dutton, “that the board fully endorse the package of bills including the Crash Investigation Reform Act, and ask Chris Quinn’s rep why the speaker has yet to voice her opinion.”

Tonight’s meeting will be held at the Church of Our Lady of Pompei, 25 Carmine St., Father Demo Hall, at 6:30 p.m. The public is invited to attend and participate.

Image: NYC DOT

The transportation committee of Manhattan Community Board 2 this week unanimously recommended that DOT implement two projects that would bring a menu of pedestrian safety improvements to SoHo, including a number of intersections near the Holland Tunnel.

At the intersection of Canal Street and Hudson Street, DOT plans to add median islands and bump-outs to reduce driver-pedestrian conflicts and shorten crossing distances. An unused triangle of asphalt on the north side of the intersection would be converted into a new pedestrian space, demarcated by a gravel surface and planters, for safer passage. A new crosswalk would be added across the eastbound tunnel entrance, reflecting a current pedestrian desire line.

Image: NYC DOT

One block east, under-used roadway on Varick Street between Broome and Watts Streets would be repurposed for pedestrians. The new space would be accompanied by a new crosswalk across the south side of Varick and Broome, offering an alternative to crossing at the tunnel entrance. A crossing on the west side of Varick and Broome would be divided into two shorter crosswalk spans, separated by a new neckdown, to decrease the amount of time pedestrians are in the path of tunnel-bound drivers. To the south, crossing distances would also be shortened at Varick and Watts.

A new pedestrian island on Canal would slow drivers turning left from Sixth Avenue. Along with new traffic lane markings, a new crosswalk would be added on the west side of the intersection of Canal and Greenwich Streets. Check out complete plans in this PDF.

Read more…

An outlaw committed suicide on Sixth Avenue early Sunday morning. At least that’s how the death of Dan Fellegara was reported by the Post and Daily News.

Dan Fellegara. Photo via Facebook

Fellegara, a construction manager from Baltimore who, according to most accounts, was 29, was crossing Sixth at Watts Street in Soho at around 4:30 a.m. when he fell and was run over by a cab driver. From the News:

“They crossed on the red light,” said the cabbie, who declined to use his name.

“They were running across, but one of the guys fell.”

The driver said he had no time to stop.

“I hit the brake, but I ran over him,” he said. “He ended up under the car. It was really bad.”

Under the headline “Taxi kills jaywalking man in SoHo,” the Post explains: “[Fellegara] was crossing against the light … when he fell in the street and was hit by the oncoming yellow cab, police said.” NYPD told Gothamist the victim was “attempting to evade oncoming traffic” and was “inadvertently struck.” The driver was not charged.

It could be that Fellegara tried to run across Sixth Avenue against the light knowing that vehicles were approaching. But if you want to know how fast the cab driver was going, a factor that could have determined whether Fellegara lived or died, that information is apparently considered irrelevant by NYPD and city media. While questions of right of way are reported and repeated by default in cases like this one, driver speed is almost never mentioned by police in press accounts.

Note that the right of way question is only hammered home when the driver “has the light.” In the thousands of cases where a pedestrian or cyclist has the right of way and is nonetheless injured or killed by an errant driver, the crash is virtually always deemed an “accident” by police and the media. This double standard goes a long way toward explaining why crossing against a light, or crossing mid-block, is considered akin to jumping in front of a train.

This fatal crash occurred in the 1st Precinct. To voice your concerns about neighborhood traffic safety directly to Deputy Inspector Edward J. Winski, the commanding officer, head to the next precinct community council meeting. The 1st Precinct council meetings happen at 6:30 p.m. on the last Thursday of each month at the precinct, 16 Ericsson Place. Call the precinct at 212-334-0640 for information.

One of 45 new bike racks installed in the Hudson Square area at the request of the local BID. Photo: Hudson Square Connection

Workers in the Hudson Square area are demanding bike infrastructure and employers are helping them get it.

The Department of Transportation has installed 45 new bike racks in response to requests from the local business improvement district, the Hudson Square Connection, which covers Manhattan’s west side between Canal and Houston Streets. The 45 new bike racks are located in a roughly 20 block area, a significant expansion of bicycle parking.

In a press release, Hudson Square Connection President Ellen Baer tied the request for bike racks not only to a desire to make the neighborhood more environmentally friendly, but to demands from area employees. “We are seeing an increasing volume of people biking to work and building owners are receiving a growing number of requests to provide amenities for cyclists,” she said.

The new racks come at a what might be an especially opportune time. The local community board has requested that the city upgrade the Hudson Street bike lane, which cuts right through the area, into a parking-protected lane, a change that if implemented would make cycling a more attractive way to get around the neighborhood.

One of these bike-share workshop participants is the star of this classic Streetfilm.

It was another evening of hands-on bike-share station planning at Manhattan Community Board 2 last night, as New Yorkers hunched over maps of SoHo and Greenwich Village, marking the best places to site bike-share kiosks.

If you live or work in the bike-share service area, you really ought to mark your calendar for the station planning meeting in your neck of the woods. There’s something very gratifying about the process that NYC DOT and Alta Bikeshare have put together for people to rate different sites. Each time you put a sticker on the map, you’re shaping the bike-share system in a small but tangible way.

The other thing is that you never know who else will show up. Last night, former Talking Heads frontman and one-time Summer Streets spokesperson David Byrne was in the house, marking up a map. If the pattern holds, it looks like Jay-Z will be on hand for the Manhattan CB 6 workshop later this month, and John Franco and John Starks might turn up at Brooklyn CB 2.

A pedestrian manager hired by the Hudson Square Connection BID helps pedestrians cross traffic headed for the Holland Tunnel. Photo: Hudson Square Connection.

Every afternoon, all four lanes of Varick Street are packed solid with traffic heading to the Holland Tunnel. Drivers block crosswalks and cross-streets as they press forward, hoping the traffic would continue to move ahead and guessing wrong. On Friday afternoons, you can hear the honking from Streetsblog HQ, ten blocks over and twelve stories up.

The unpleasant and unsafe conditions created at the mouth of the tunnel are a top priority for the Hudson Square Connection, the business improvement district in charge of the area between Houston and Canal and Sixth Avenue and Greenwich Street. The BID’s latest focus is on keeping crosswalks clear for pedestrians in this gridlocked part of the city.

“Unlike other business improvements districts which were created to address security or sanitation issues, in this neighborhood our businesses want something done about the traffic,” said BID president Ellen Baer in a statement. “We need to even the playing field so that pedestrians can safely get from one place to another in the district.”

Already, the BID has worked with the Department of Transportation to install yield to pedestrian signs, move stop lines for vehicles back from crosswalks, and create exclusive pedestrian phases into the signal timing at area intersections.

In its most recent effort to make the area more friendly for pedestrians, the BID is hiring pedestrian managers to keep intersections on Varick clear. NYPD traffic enforcement agents are already stationed on Varick below Spring Street, said Baer, but the gridlock extends all the way north to Houston. The pedestrian managers will keep drivers from blocking crosswalks or intersections along the rest of Varick.

Said Baer, “Our priority here, with our pedestrian traffic managers, is to assure the convenience and safety of pedestrians.” Compare that to how an NYPD officer near the Lincoln Tunnel described his job: “My objective is the cars, not the people.”

The BID is also working toward a comprehensive reimagining of the area’s streetscape, said Baer, which should be unveiled towards the beginning of next year. “This area, which was originally the printing district years ago, was an area that worked well for printers,” she said. “Now you have a more dense population here.”

Baer wouldn’t reveal what might be in the plan while it’s still under development, but a few clues are available on the BID’s website. Signe Nielsen, a principal at the landscape architecture firm leading the streetscape redesign work, suggested in an interview that “Other ideas include street closings or shared streets that can become seasonal or weekend places that can offer different opportunities for interaction and engagement.” One flyer for a public meeting on the plan brought up the idea of “reclaiming/rebalancing road space” as a topic for discussion. This definitely seems like a plan and a neighborhood worth keeping an eye on.